West Ham would be absolutely crazy to entertain any transfer offer from Manchester United for midfielder Edson Alvarez.
On the face of it, new head coach Julen Lopetegui has something of a challenge on his hands with the West Ham midfield. Tomas Soucek appears unsuited to the Spaniard’s possession-based style of football, whilst Lucas Paqueta can’t be factored into team planning with any level of certainty.
Numerous tactical reports suggest that the former Real Madrid and Spain coach favours a system where his defensive midfielder is comfortable on the ball and proficient at filling in for defenders.
This is due to the fact that Lopetegui prefers his fullbacks to be deployed high up the pitch, which places extra emphasis on the CDM to cover defensively.
Edson Alvarez is absolutely perfect for that role, and it could be argued that he is custom-made for Lopetegui’s tactics. The Mexican is one of the few players the new head coach does not have to worry about, allowing him to concentrate on other areas of the squad that do need strengthening.
Selling Alvarez would create a whole new problem and task director of football Tim Steidten with finding yet another player. It is common knowledge that Steidten has been prioritising the recruitment of two central defenders and a striker, which is believed to have taken up all of his time.
West Ham must robustly reject all advances for Alvarez. Manchester United may well see him as the answer to their defensive woes, but West Ham have enough to consider with Paqueta, Kudus, and Emerson all attracting interest from elsewhere.
Lopetegui left Wolverhampton Wanderers because he believed the club had not fully supported him. If the Hammers decide to sell Alvarez, we may well find ourselves with a very frustrated coach on our hands.
I think Moyes had a lot to answer for including buying unsuitable players & treating some players badly.
Moyes was ok & well done for silverware but he is old school & we have always needed to go for it like Bowen, Kudus & like Declan did.
New coach great news, Zouma out, Aguerd sell, Cresswell past it, maybe Antonio as a back up? but not on 100k a week.
Fresh new team but keep those substitutes ready, always had to small a squad & an aging one.
My man Gonzo,
We all like Alvarez, but have you followed his form up until recently?
He has lost much of the sparkle that caused us to rave about him. Because his energy was disappearing so was his crunch tackles and blocks.
Because of his, and Soucek’s form the WH midfield had become like an empty highway, through which opposition traffic merrily ventured through on their way to 74x goals.
Alvarez also drew negative reviews for his performance for Mexico against a very weak Brazil team. Granted he played in a very unusual position .. centre-back.
My prayer is that the old Avarez returns pre-season, and that West Ham + the new manager would polish him up and keep him for many a year to come.
Come on Alvarez – Coyi – God bless West Ham 🙏⚒⚽️🔥
Time for the ownership to deliver. What they promised the supporters who walked into that little room in Westfield in the 2015/16 season . If not like this government are going to find out in 2 weeks . A promise needs to kept. if not you’re supporters will revolt .
His form only dipped because of the way Moyes treated him
Totally agree with you, Simon. He wasn’t exactly Rice out there. While I hope he returns to form and that we don’t sell him, let’s not act like he was perfect.
£60/70million stick that on as a price tag if that does not deter them then take that money as any player can be replaced just means tim has to work a little harder and prove his rep.. we have a young stats guy get him crunching the numbers immediately regarding player in this position…you have a team employed for this use them.
Don’t sell him or put £100m price tag on him.Im sick off Liverpool, man utd, Chelsea and arsenal thinking that they can cherry pick players from wherever they like.
I hope Alvarez is happy and not looking for a move after all he’s got a contract to honour and has only been here 1year but as Wenger used to say if a player’s not happy you may as well move them on. I hope Alvarez,s pride doesn’t allow him to be distracted, play well for us and in the future maybe move elsewhere. Why would any young ,quality players want to ruin their career,s by moving to Saudi and playing in front of 800 fans . Obviously some would doubt their own ability and need to make big money while they can.
Romano has said it would be very difficult to do as lopetegui sees him as a key player basically wishful thinking on the cockney reds
Ten Haag took Anthony to Manure ! Why didn’t he go for Kudus and Alvarez instead ? Didn’t think they’d do it in the prem ? He’s the pivotal point in our team plans, don’t sell !!!!